<p>Basic info
Gpa: 3.5 uw 4.15 weighted
Sat: 1420 + writing = 1990 (first sitting)
Number of aps 1 soph 2 junior (maybe more ap credit for summer thing) 4 senior
Notable courses: BC calc as junior, molecular genetics junior. MV calc/differential and ap physics as senior.
Strong EC namely eagle scout, and volunteer fire/ems
Resident of Maryland
White</p>
<p>I'm looking for a public school with 20k+ students, some of the things I'm looking for include:</p>
<p>Nice rec/fitness center (I want to play pickup basketball)
Good weather (preferably)
Strong engineering programs
Decent amount of party/social (place where football is big)
Decent gender ratio
And not as important but high out of state percentage</p>
<p>I’m sure there are plenty. Off the top of my head I thought of UMiami (Oops, private) and VA Tech (also private? Not sure…) Both have large student populations…</p>
<p>I would recommend the University of Texas. It meets all your criteria and Austin is a very nice town. Out of state tuition is also a lot lower than in other states.</p>
<p>Texas A&M also has a strong football tradition, very good Engineering school but College Station is nothing special.</p>
<p>This pretty much sums up the advice, at least for those schools with good weather. All of them will have decent rec/fitness, strong engineering, big football, and roughly equal gender. Out of state percentage could be an issue. Most state flagships are heavily in-state by design. Alabama is an exception with about half out of state, and your stats would earn full tuition plus $2500 engineering scholarship. Maryland, your home flagship, meets all your criteria at in-state price. Why look elsewhere?</p>
<p>For most of these recommendations, you will not get in with a 3.5 unless that is really good for your HS. Do you know your class rank? Be sure to keep your unweighted GPA above 3.5 as that can be a hard cutoff for some merit scholarships. Also, unless you have a 4.0 junior year, I would recommend against schools where you will be near the bottom academically. Engineering is hard enough as it is.</p>
<p>So no, not Texas, GT, or UCLA. Yes for applying to Maryland and VT, and possibly NC State. Definitely look into Alabama as long as they keep offering that deal. Maybe think about Clemson and South Carolina. I left off Texas A&M because, well, it takes a certain personality to come from northern states into that culture.</p>
<p>If you are willing to travel out west, consider Colorado and Oregon State.</p>
<p>If you want good weather, I’d skip Oregon State. It’s a good program and a pretty campus, but Corvallis is gray and wet much of the year. An oft overlooked program that has a great campus, four real seasons without bitter cold, and a great student backed athletic program, particularly football, is Utah. </p>
<p>@eyemgh Do you know anything about the University of Texas? Have you ever been to Austin? If so, tell me about it. </p>
<p>I graduated from a public Texas high school and the quality of the education was far superior than the education I received when we lived in one of these uppity, East Coast “Martha Stewart” type of suburbs in CT.</p>
<p>UT is a great Engineering school and Austin is in my opinion, one of the best “college towns” in the USA</p>
<p>I lived in Texas for seven years between Houston and San Antonio. Austin is a nice town and UT a good school. I prefer the west coast to Texas, but if I had to return, it would certainly be Austin. I was being a bit facetious. </p>
<p>Texas is very hard to get into if you are out of state … and you are not guaranteed housing. What kind of engineering are you looking at? That is a big piece of the discussion.</p>
<p>The only ones I think I’ve ruled out are chem and biomed. My brother did civil and my dad did as well so I guess for right now that’s where im headed.</p>
<p>Out-of-State tuition at UT-Austin is one of the most expensive in the country. It is $35,000/yr for the 2013-2014 school year for engineering. Be careful about the tables on the website, those numbers are per SEMESTER.</p>
</p>